order of importing modules

[Dan Stromberg]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 4:30 PM, Catherine Moroney
<Catherine.M.Moroney at jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
> In what order does python import modules on a Linux system?  I have a
> package that is both installed in /usr/lib64/python2.5/site-packages,
> and a newer version of the same module in a working directory.
>
> I want to import the version from the working directory, but when I
> print module.__file__ in the interpreter after importing the module,
> I get the version that's in site-packages.
>
> I've played with the PYTHONPATH environmental variable by setting it
> to just the path of the working directory, but when I import the module
> I still pick up the version in site-packages.
>
> /usr/lib64 is in my PATH variable, but doesn't appear anywhere else.  I
> don't want to remove /usr/lib64 from my PATH because that will break
> a lot of stuff.
>
> Can I force python to import from my PYTHONPATH first, before looking
> in the system directory?
>
> Catherine
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

Please import sys and inspect sys.path; this defines the search path
for imports.

By looking at sys.path, you can see where in the search order your
$PYTHONPATH is going.

It might actually be better to give your script a command line option
that says "Throw the following directory at the beginning of
sys.path".